Second Report

Wondering if I’d got disproportionately angry over some of the comments in my manuscript assessment report, I went back over it, but had the same issues as before. But in the end I realised something; it wasn’t so much the comments as the perspective of them. They came from a Mills and Boon perspective, which isn’t the only romantic fiction publisher out there, nor the one that’s necessarily the best fit for my novel. So I’m glad I got the assessment because if nothing else it highlighted that fact for me. Plus if I hadn’t, I would always have wondered. . .

It also made me realise that I like my book how it is, and I’ll defend it. I’m not against making changes altogether – that would be foolish – but the essence of it, and the reasons why I included certain bits feel sound to me, and if one publisher isn’t going to like it, I’ll look somewhere else. Because I don’t want to compromise my style just so my books will ‘fit’.

I was told to be original after all.

My main concern is these hinted at plot and structure issues are something that’ll put other publishers off, even if my character portrayals aren’t so bad. The best thing to do? I guess read through the novel again, and if I’m still happy with it then try sending it out. The worst they can do is refuse after all, and I can deal with that. I think.